Philadelphia

We loved Zahav. We stayed aat Loew's Philadelphia Hotel, original the PSFS Building, a national historic landmark that was the first International Style building constructed in the U.S., designed by Gordon Howe and Williams Lescaze. We found it comfortable as well as beautiful.

Thanks, but we're going to skip Solomonov's place this time around. Not only is it very hard to get into, but he co-chef'fed a meal at La Vara this past year that was great & we're fine with having been to that. Again, thanks (we might go look at the building though).

We're thinking about spending a long weekend in Philly end of May, beginning of June. Working on hotels and restaurants. Anyone know anything about "Mr. Martino's Trattoria", "Le Virtu", or "Russet"?

eta: just re-read another Philly thread and noticed that wingding liked Le Virtu several years ago.

Just saw your post. You probably have your plans set but thought I’d mention these restaurants we liked the last time we were in Philly: Kanella (Greek), Bibou (French bistro), and The Dandelion (British). We stayed at the Kimpton Palomar.

We're thinking about spending a long weekend in Philly end of May, beginning of June. Working on hotels and restaurants. Anyone know anything about "Mr. Martino's Trattoria", "Le Virtu", or "Russet"?

eta: just re-read another Philly thread and noticed that wingding liked Le Virtu several years ago.

Just got back from 4 days/nights in Philly. Stayed at the Alexander Inn on 12th and Spruce. Not much on water pressure and had a room a/c that was a little loud, and an elevator that was a little shaky. But the location, charm and friendliness more than made up for it & we'd definitely stay again. The city reminded me a lot of Bklyn and we walked everywhere. Lots of walking. We ate at Russet (ok enough, but the flavors didn't zing), Mr. Martino's Trattoria (a charming friendly place with very good home cooking), Effie's Greek Restaurant (again, good home cooking) & Le Virtu. We'd go back to Mr. Martino and Effie's for good meals in warm, homey rooms, but we'd go back to Le Virtu for that plus some excellent cooking. The pasta especially were great. This was the only non-BYOB of the 4, but the bottle of Aglianico was reasonably priced at $45 so it remained very nicely priced. All in all, a very good long weekend. Ginny got to get me into museums, I got to city walk (I love doing that) in a new place & time flew by. No cheesesteak, but a nice pastrami on rye from Herschel's Deli in the Reading Market. Only their sports teams annoy me.

A quick visit to Philly. My current dietary disposition counsels against hoagies, but I was lucky enough to happen on thisDietz & Watson pop-up store on its very last day. In addition to some very creative and amusing merchandise, it was stocked heavily with meat and cheese, all 25% off. I came away with a loaf of scrapple, several bags of Dietz Nuts (actually sausage bites), and with a pack of turkey breast thrown in for free.

A random dinner choice, after the first option turned out to have been taken over by a Harry Potter bar crawl (yes), was a casual Mexican, Lucha Cartel. On the basis of a quick meal, it was unusually good. Lechon couldn't have been better, and had the added attraction of the waiter actually pouring rich jus over it from a little jug, just like this was Le Coucou or something.

Barbuzzo does really nice stuff with vegetables and pasta. Pizza with squash blossoms and prosciutto was good too.

This may be controversial but I had a burger at that old mainstay The Continental (the near the water location) and it was the best burger I’ve had in quite some time. Pretty much the Platonic ideal of a cheeseburger.